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Remembering African-American Publisher John Johnson; America's Love Affair with Pandas

Aired August 10, 2005 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Daryn Kagan. Let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."
President Bush's working vacation taking him to the Midwest this morning. He's set to visit a caterpillar plant near Chicago to sign a major transportation bill. Critics say the $286 billion measure is full of wasteful projects, but lawmakers who backed the bill say projects were included on merit. We'll have live coverage of the bill signing in the next hour.

The search goes on for an escaped prisoner and his wife. Police in Kingston, Tennessee, say Jennifer Hyatte sprang her husband George Hyatte by shooting a guard to death outside the Roane County courthouse. At least one of the Hyattes is believed to have been shot during the incidents. George Hyatte has escaped from the county jail twice before.

For $100 million apiece, you and a friend can take a trip to the moon. That's what a Virginia-based firm will charge passengers to ride a Russian rocket to the moon and back. The trip could come as soon as three years from now. I'll take with the head of Space Adventures about the moon trip coming up in the next hour.

To our CNN "Security Watch" now, a Pakistani cleric remains in jail in California after an immigration judge refused to set bail. Shabbir Ahmed served as the head of the mosque in Lodi, California. He's accused of overstaying his visa. At the bail hearing, an FBI agent claimed the cleric was planning to train followers to kill Americans. His lawyer denies that allegations.

Authorities say a 20-year-old Texas man has been arrested in connection with a bomb hoax. A Southwest Airlines flight was evacuated in Houston last week after a passenger found a gum wrapper that said, quote, "There's a bomb on this plane." Police say Elias Jeremiah Cervantez was arrested without incident in San Antonio. He could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

While airline passengers and their luggages are carefully screened these days, the same cannot be said for airline cargo. Cargo shipments are carried on the same flights that carry passengers, and a three-month CNN investigation shows that containers often sit unattended on airport ramps, and virtually none is inspected before loading. The Transportation Safety Administration admits the system is not fool-proof. It says it is working on improvements.

Be sure to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

Let's take a look at other stories making news coast to coast today.

The video game defense did not work for an Alabama defendant. Twenty-year-old Devin Moore was convicted of killing two police officers and a dispatcher. Moore's lawyers blamed a bad childhood and the influence of the video game "Grand Theft Auto." The jury convicted him of capital murder anyway.

An armed robbery in Wareham, Massachusetts, featured an unusual weapon, a machete. A masked bandit used the weapon to threaten a gas station manager and a customer and he got away with $760. The machete and some clothing the robber was wearing were found abandoned near the scene.

The runaway bride is walking behind a lawn mower these days. That's Jennifer Wilbanks mowing the lawn of a government building in Lawrenceville, Georgia, as part of her court-ordered community service. Wilbanks sparked a massive search when she skipped town before her scheduled April wedding. She later lied to police, saying that she had been abducted.

Still to come on CNN LIVE TODAY, of all the things you don't want to do at a baseball game. One fan gets a little too involved at Yankees Stadium.

Plus, armed with a $500 loan, he built the largest African- American publishing company in the world. Up next, the legacy of "Ebony" magazine founder John Johnson.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: Now we're going to talk about a man who was one of the most influential African-American leaders in America. Word by word, page by page, John Johnson's publishing empire helped bridged the nation's racial divide and counter some of its ugliest stereotypes. Johnson died on Monday. First now, a look at his life with reporter Charles Thomas of our Chicago affiliate WLS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN JOHNSON, PUBLISHER: We are constantly checking and double- checking and doing research and trying to determine whether we are meeting the needs of the people.

CHARLES THOMAS, WLS REPORTER (voice-over): Johnson granted one of his final television interviews to ABC 7 Terry Porterfield (ph) three years ago. Johnson was the founder and long-time publisher of "Ebony" and "Jet" magazines, founded in 1947 and 1951, respectively; each of which has sold hundreds of millions of copies around the world.

During the 1960s and '70s, the Johnson Publishing Company, based on South Michigan Avenue in Chicago, was considered the most successful African-American-owned business in the country.

JAMES MONTGOMERY, JOHNSON'S ATTORNEY: John Johnson was a pioneer in journalism in general and, specifically, he put together magazines that portrayed the positive aspects of the African-American community.

THOMAS: Johnson's magazines chronicled the civil rights movement, but more recently, they have been criticized for putting less focus on social issues and too much on entertainers, athletes and their lifestyles. But Johnson's acumen as a businessman is unquestioned.

LYDIA DAVIS EADY, FMR. V.P., JOHNSON PUBLISHING: Certainly, all of our hearts are at half-mast with his passing today. But as Mr. Bennett said, he has left a legacy that will affect people for so many generations to come.

LERONE BENNETT, EXEC. EDITOR EMERITUS, "EBONY": He was a publisher who changed the content and the color of American media.

THOMAS: In 1996, President Clinton gave Johnson the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

ROLAND MARTIN, JOURNALIST: This is someone who changed the face of media, who clearly was the king of black media.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: That was reporter Charles Thomas of our Chicago affiliate WLS.

Now with more in-depth look at one of those people in that report, Lerone Bennett, Jr. has worked in variety of positions at "Ebony" for 52 years and retired as its executive editor. He joins me now from Chicago.

Mr. Bennett, good morning.

BENNETT: Good morning.

KAGAN: Let's talk more about this revolutionary idea that John Johnson had in the mid-'40s, when a number of black soldiers were coming back from World War II. He wanted to help promote the idea that there could be a better life and create a publication that had positive stories of black America. I understand the advice he received was maybe you don't want to do that. Put your money someplace else.

BENNETT: Many people told him that the magazine could not, would not be successful. One of America's greatest civil rights leaders told him that blacks have tried repeatedly to establish commercially viable magazines and that they had failed, and he urged Mr. Johnson not to do it. Many years later, he returned to Mr. Johnson and said I gave you some bad advice.

KAGAN: Yes, you think so? BENNETT: Mr. Johnson was a giant of American media, and he helped change the rules by which we operate in this country, change the color and the content of American media. And he gave African- Americans a new sense of themselves and he gave other Americans a new sense of the possibilities of African-Americans.

KAGAN: As we said, you worked in a number of capacities for him over 50 years. Do you remember the first time you met John Johnson?

BENNETT: The first time I met him was in 1953. I came to Chicago to work for the magazine. He was assembling at that time what he considered to be the best writers, photographers, advertising people in the country. And I met him that day and he outlined to us what he had in mind, his (INAUDIBLE) vision that he wanted the best and he intended to create the best. And he wanted to know if we wanted to dedicate ourselves to the excellence campaign he was organizing at that time.

And I was impressed then, I was impressed to the end, by the electricity of the man. There was an electricity in him that communicated itself to everybody who talked to him. And I said and I will say over and over again that he was an American original who had established an original relationship with media and with people he was involved with.

KAGAN: So, if other people had tried to do what he was trying to do in the past and failed, what was it about him, what did he figure out, that made him so successful in all these ventures like "Ebony" magazine, like "Jet" magazine? What was the key that he figured out how to do so successfully?

BENNETT: The secret of his success first was his indomitable tenacity and spirit and his refusal to accept no for an answer. He said over and over again that his motto and his signature quotation was, "Failure is a word I don't accept."

The second thing -- the second secret to his success is that he was the first major publisher to persuade Madison Avenue and American advertisers and corporate America, that it was to their self-interests to use African-American models and to appeal to African-American consumers in African-American media.

And he was determined -- and the great story of his life, he told it repeatedly -- for ten years, he sent a man to Detroit week after week until he broke his first account in the automobile industry. He sent this man on a train every week to Detroit for ten years. And so he was persistent and determined. And the walls came tumbling down.

KAGAN: A quote that I saw of his that touched me was, "The only failure is the failure to try." Failing to try. Sounds like he kept trying for his entire life.

Thank you for sharing your personal insights and your experiences and your knowledge of the man. Lerone Bennett, Jr., talking about the life and times of John Johnson. A love affair with pandas just ahead. Americans are fascinated with them, but how did the creatures ever get over here to the U.S. to begin with? One woman's story. That's ahead.

Plus, after the fall. We'll tell you how much trouble this teen is in for falling out of his seat at Yankees Stadium, when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Americans have a huge love affair with pandas. The San Diego Zoo recently welcomed the birth of a panda cub. Looking at video from there, panda-cam there. The little fellow was born at the National Zoo in Washington early last month, as well.

And if you're a fan of the giant panda, you might want to read more of Vicki Croke's new book. It's called "The Lady and the Panda." It's the story of how pandas first came to America. Vicki Croke is with us now from Boston.

Vicki, good morning.

VICKI CROKE, AUTHOR, "THE LADY AND THE PANDA": Good morning.

KAGAN: Who knew there was one fascinating woman behind the story of these fuzzy little creatures that we all get such a kick of at the zoo?

CROKE: Not many people knew. I was researching a book on zoos in 1993 and I came across a couple of sentences that said that a socialite and a dress designer brought the first giant panda back to the states in 1936. And I thought, wow, that's got to be a great zoo legend. But as I went around and interviewed people from zoos, no one had heard of it. It's just been gathering dust for decades.

KAGAN: The woman's name Ruth Harkness. She was a young widow whose husband had a fascination with pandas and died in his quest to go after a panda.

CROKE: That's right. She took up his mission. She was married to a young adventurer in the mold of the Roosevelt brothers, Ivy- league educated, very wealthy. When he died in China after two years of trying to get the giant panda, Ruth Harkness quite improbably decided that she would take over his mission. She said of herself that she wouldn't walk a city block if there was a taxicab idling nearby. So everyone had a good laugh when she decided to go into what was then considered the most treacherous portion of the world, the mountains between Tibet and China, to try to do what all these burly, well-equipped men had been unable to do for years.

KAGAN: A lot of skepticism, yet she found success, she makes it to China. How does she end up, though, bringing a panda cub back to the zoo in Chicago?

CROKE: What's interesting is that Ruth Harkness had an epiphany one night when she was in Shanghai before her expedition. She thought, what if I found a baby panda? So she packed a glass nursing bottle and some formula. So when, in fact, they did discover a baby in a hollowed-out spruce tree -- ancient spruce tree -- she was able to feed it on her way back from the interior China to Shanghai, then to the United States where she was greeted by -- I mean, America was in a depression at that time.

And people greeted her I guess the way -- if Stella McCartney or Donna Karan went to the moon and brought a creature we've never seen before, we would have had the same reaction that people did in the United States.

KAGAN: Well, and up to that point...

CROKE: But she...

KAGAN: That people didn't have a familiarity with pandas.

CROKE: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: They didn't even know it existed.

CROKE: In fact, Ruth Harkness, when her husband first told her about the panda, she said you mean, panther, don't you, darling? Most people in the United States had never heard of the panda. We know -- every toddler knows what a little -- what a giant panda looks like. But at that time, most people had never seen one. And they're so striking that the whole country just fell in love with little baby Su Lin.

KAGAN: And having spent so much time researching this one woman's story, what do you think she would think of America's fascination with pandas today?

CROKE: She would absolutely understand it. In fact, she found from the very start, as she brought her baby panda from the interior toward Shanghai, that in every village she went to, people crowded around. And she said particularly women, she found, were attracted to the panda. And today we know from scientists that pandas have what human babies have, sort of in spades. They look like they have large eyes, rounded ears, rounded bodies, and it appears they have thumbs, even though they don't, and they sit upright to feed. So the very -- the natural instinct we have to nurture human babies, we also have toward giant pandas.

KAGAN: But they're not bears, right?

CROKE: They are now bears. This has been a controversy for so long. For many, many years we thought they were in the raccoon family. Today with DNA testing, scientists now have reached the consensus that they are, in fact, in the bear family.

KAGAN: OK. Well, see, that's what I learned today. Vicki, good luck with the book. Vicki Croke.

CROKE: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: The book is called "The Lady and the Panda." It's not just a story about pandas, but one woman's fascinating story of overcoming the odds and stretching herself beyond limits. Thank you.

CROKE: Thank you very much.

KAGAN: We're going to check the time right now. It is 9:53 at Johnson Space Center, where the Discovery crew members are expected to reunite with their families this afternoon. Bet they're looking forward to that.

10:53 in Kingston, Tennessee. A manhunt is on there for a state prison inmate and his wife.

Stay with us. We're going to have a check of your morning forecast just ahead. Plus, an apparent stunt gone awry at Yankees Stadium that left one man all tangled up. Details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers is scheduled to be back on the mound tonight. That, by the way, is a week earlier than anticipated. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig suspended Rogers for 20 games and fined him $50,000 for this incident that we're watching. That was after Rogers confronted and shoved two television cameramen in June. Yesterday, though, an arbitrator reduced that suspension to 13 games Rogers has already missed. Selig expressed disappointment with the arbitrator's decision, saying it sends the wrong message.

Another baseball-related controversy. A radio talk show host is out of a job for saying that San Francisco Giants have too many, quote now, quoting now, "brain-dead Caribbean hitters." Caribbean hitter. Larry Krueger worked for KNBR. That's the San Francisco Giants' flagship radio station. After the Giants' manager Felipe Alou called the remark offensive, the station suspended Krueger. He apologized. Now, though, he and two members of the station's management have been fired.

And yes, now another baseball-related way to get into trouble: Not staying in your ticketed seat. New York police say they 18-year- old Scott Harper into custody last night. Look at this. What are you thinking? the police say he jumped from his upper deck seat at Yankees Stadium into the netting behind home plate. The net did tear. It did hold him, however. Harper faces charges of disorderly conduct, trespassing and reckless endangerment. It is not an aerial sport. Remain in your seat, please.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Straight ahead this morning, they called it one step for one -- one small step for mankind, but now, you, too can have an opportunity to take a trip to the moon. It's going to cost a little bit of coin. We'll tell you how much, as the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.

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